Wed, 16 Apr 2003 -- Media Matters No. 29:
Using a media campaign to publicize your report

This is the fifth -- and final -- Media Matters devoted to gaining media attention for your research report. Thanks to the SPIN Project, from which much of this material was taken.

If you decide on a full-fledged, multi-component media campaign to release your report, you will need to plan ahead:

Several weeks prior: -- Produce a media kit that contains a one- or two-page executive summary of the report, the report itself, your press release, supportive fact sheets and other materials.

The week prior to the release date: Conduct media briefings before the report is released to make sure key reporters are prepped and have access to the key facts and players, including the author(s).

Write and place an opinion editorial timed to come out on or close to the day you release the report. Pitch the story to radio and TV; book yourself on local talk shows.

On the release date: -- Stage an attention-getting media event that visualizes the news. This can be a press conference featuring key staff people, the author, leading politicians if appropriate, plus personal "testifiers," to release the report accompanied by a photo op: a rally or some other event. It's important to give the media -- in particular television -- something to tape or photograph. But do not release your report in some boring, fluorescent-lit meeting room, with serious officials reading numbers and statistics as reporters vainly try to stay awake. Stage the news when you release the report and give reporters a dramatic media event to punctuate it. Is your report about inclusive education? Hold your media event at an elementary school -- one you want to praise for its inclusion efforts -- or one your report criticizes for its continuing segregation. Either way, you give news media the "visuals" they need.

Once the story has made news: Send in the letters to the editor to keep it alive for a few more days. Produce radio actualities to echo the message and release your news in even more media markets.

Other ideas to extend the media coverage for your report: If your organization has the capacity to release the report in several locations at once, go for it! Can you partner with other organizations that work on similar issues to expand the reach and scope of the news? If there's a grassroots component to your report, you can also produce media action kits that make it easy for consumers and others to help release your report -- and help to ensure that all locations are on message. Activists can localize the message of your national report.

More Media Matters